"At the recent Cavalier Health Liaison Committee meeting, Clubs voted to ask
the Kennel Club to include all results from the EF CC/DE DNA tests in the
KC's registration system and in their Health Test Results Finder and
published by the Kennel Club in the Breed Record supplement. Furthermore the
Club's requested that all CKCS that are not already heritably clear should
be tested for both EF and DE/CC prior to breeding and that at least one
parent of each litter is free of each mutation, to ensure no affected
puppies can be produced or registered."...............

I am delighted to read this. At long last, two years after the DNA tests were first made available, perhaps we will see them added to the Assured Breeders Scheme.

Congratulations to Barbara Reese who spent so many long years fundraising and working with researchers to make this possible.

25th March 2013, 09:29 AM

ByFloSin

Congratulations should also be given to people such as one time CT member Alison (Cavielove) who so unselfishly loved, cared for and gave so much of themselves and their affected dogs to participate in the research at AHT which led to the isolation of the gene(s) causing this dreadful disease. Without Alison and several others with affected dogs none of this would have been possible.

It's all too easy to look at an affected pup or dog and decide it is not viable because of being affected, but it takes a lot more to give that dog or pup a it's birthright, i.e. the chance of a comfortable albiet restricted life.

25th March 2013, 10:17 AM

Karlin

That's great to hear, Margaret.

Barbara was a lone voice for a long time, offering descriptions, videos and support via her website, which helped so many people correctly diagnose their dogs. The site has been so helpful as a central source of info on these conditions, to pass along to vets, too. Over the years of working with many different vets for rescue, I found few who know anything about CM/SM and, in 7 years, only one who had ever heard of EFS/curly coat. :( So you are right that online resources were so important and also the campaigning of many individuals to raise awareness.

I really enjoyed talking to Jacques Penderis, the researcher whose team were involved in developing the DNA test. It is inexpensive and simple to do and especially given that it is definitive and cannot not change over time, always has seemed an obvious test to include in any health database.

Here is that interview for anyone interested in some of the background to the test, and his views on other cavalier health conditions including epilepsy and CM/SM: